Treasures from Malta
Treasures from Malta is a new podcast series produced by Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti (FPM). Hosted and presented by Francesca Balzan, art historian and artist with a long connection with FPM, each podcast episode consists of individual interviews. We’re getting away from old artefacts in glass showcases and we’re going into the homes and meeting up with some of Malta’s living treasures. We dig below the surface and find out more about them. These treasures are artists, historians, art collectors, performers and arts practitioners with some Malta connection…they’re all fair game for the pod and we want to share them with you. Images and links relating to each episode are in the episode notes here: https://www.patrimonju.org/fpm-podcasts
Episodes
32 episodes
Meet tenor Joseph Calleja
Joseph Calleja is one of the world’s foremost tenors. He has performed in numerous operatic roles, solo performances and concerts to great acclaim and has scooped up several major international awards, since his early operatic debut at 19 years...
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Season 4
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Episode 8
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1:02:11
Meet artist and art historian Joseph Paul Cassar
Joseph Paul Cassar is an artist and art historian whose studies have taken him from Africa to Australia, and he now resides and lectures in North America. He is a specialist on African and Modern European art and lectures at prestigious i...
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Season 4
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Episode 7
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1:08:49
Meet philosopher and poet Michael Zammit
Michael Zammit is a poet and a philosopher who has a tendency to look East. He has mastered the difficult language of Sanskrit, and has studied and written extensively about it. He draws lessons from the great philosophical traditions of the Ea...
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Season 4
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Episode 6
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54:54
Meet theatre historian Vicki Ann Cremona
Vicki Ann Cremona is a prolific and distinguished academic who originally studied and taught French. In time she was drawn to theatre studies and dance, and has approached them from so many angles through her research and papers ranging from th...
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Season 4
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Episode 5
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59:44
Meet soprano Gillian Zammit
Gillian Zammit is elegance personified. Her petite frame belies the incredibly powerful singing voice that has made her a household name. Her musical repertoire is vast and she is equally comfortable singing Baroque opera as she is with 20th ce...
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Season 4
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Episode 4
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59:43
Meet author Philip Farrugia Randon
Philip Farrugia Randon is somewhat of a polymath with a multi-faceted career. He graduated as a lawyer in 1973, while simultaneously broadcasting programmes on radio and tv. Throughout his working life as a lawyer, specializing in banking law, ...
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Season 4
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Episode 3
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59:41
Meet celebrity photographer Lorenzo Agius
Lorenzo Agius is a celebrity photographer of Maltese descent. His roots are in art and art history but early on in his career he took up photography as his medium, working his way up from photography assistant to a fully-fledged freelance photo...
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Season 4
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Episode 2
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56:44
Meet artist and academic Vince Briffa
Vince Briffa made the cross-over from industry to the academic field, while maintaining an art practice that has established him as one of the leading lights in the contemporary visual arts in Malta. He has attended numerous prestigious interna...
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Season 4
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Episode 1
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57:45
Meet scenic artist Carmel Said
Scenic artist Carmel Said has had a remarkable career. From art studies in Malta he went on to obtain further art degrees in London where he worked his way up to become one of the finest scenic artists, producing incredible sets that are beauti...
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Season 3
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Episode 8
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1:00:36
Meet percussionist and sound artist Renzo Spiteri
Renzo Spiteri is a multi-percussionist, composer and improviser, a multimedia artist, a field recordist, sound designer, and arts collaborator. In essence he is a sound artist who seems to have no restrictions, such is his versatility and the e...
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Season 3
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Episode 7
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1:03:11
Meet historian Joan Abela
Dr Joan Abela is synonymous with archives. She is a well published historian who achieved distinction throughout her academic journey and now in turn fires up her students with enthusiasm for the past. She has wowed us with her many discoveries...
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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58:03
Meet ceramicist Nico Conti
Nico Conti is a ceramic artist who is working clay in exciting, radical new ways. From his undergraduate days at MCAST in Malta to finishing top of his class at the Royal College of Art in 2019, he has continually excelled. In the short space o...
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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53:15
Meet photographer Daniel Cilia
Daniel Cilia is one of Malta’s foremost photographers. His artistry is much admired, going to great lengths not only to record what might soon disappear, but making seemingly impossible photographs that continuously elicit awe and wonder from h...
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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1:01:34
Meet designer Suzanne Sharp
Rug and interiors designer Suzanne Sharp has had a very colourful career! Together with her husband, Christopher, she has risen to become one of the leading exponents in rug design internationally. Her roots are Maltese, and indeed the first sh...
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Season 3
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Episode 3
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57:14
Meet maritime archaeologist Timmy Gambin
Timmy Gambin is a maritime archaeologist and an associate professor at the Department of Classics and Archaeology at the University of Malta. His interest is specifically in wrecks that lie deep below Maltese waters - whether they are ancient o...
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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1:21:26
Meet food writer Matty Cremona
Matty Cremona is an accomplished cook and food history writer. She has written four books and numerous articles about the history of food and the context of dining in Malta. Her knowledge of Malta’s food history, honed through years of research...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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54:32
Meet Music historian Anna Borg Cardona
Anna Borg Cardona is a musician and music researcher whose eyes fire up with incredible excitement whenever she talks about the discoveries she keeps making in our many rich historic archives here in Malta. Through the decades she has discovere...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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52:48
Meet philosopher Joe Friggieri
Prof. Joe Friggieri is a philosopher, a playwright, a theatre director, a poet and an author, not to mention a person who has been an influencer in the arts in Malta from decades before an influencer became ‘a thing’. He has packed all of this ...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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59:30
Meet conductor Wayne Marshall OBE
Wayne Marshall is a conductor, pianist and organist of great international repute. He has performed widely in all of the principal concert halls and opera houses around the world, both as conductor and pianist, and sometimes simultaneously ! He...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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41:43
Meet curator Frà John Critien
In this podcast episode, we meet a knight! Frà John Edward Critien is a professed member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the only Maltese to have ever been elevated to the highest ranks of this International Order. For severa...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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58:01
Meet jurist and author Giovanni Bonello
Giovanni Bonello has distinguished himself in both culture and the law. In culture he has left an indelible mark in researching, discovering and publishing his countless finds. He has provided new angles on the history of art in Malta as ...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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49:04
Meet actress Kim Dalli
Kim Dalli is an actress who has worked as a journalist in real life, as well as inhabiting the role in Herman Grech’s recent play ‘They Blew Her Up’. Her love for writing has also been directed towards script-writing and in this podcast she tel...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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40:56
Meet film director Alex Camilleri
Alex Camilleri is a Maltese-American film director who is particularly inspired by Malta and has set his debut film, LUZZU, in Malta. And what a film ! LUZZU became the first Maltese film to show at the highly prestigious Sundance film festival...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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1:04:00
Meet architect Richard England
Richard England is embedded in the national psyche as the Starchitect from Malta. He has won several international awards for his architectural work. He has been honoured by States, by various Universities and by all of the important internatio...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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1:12:08
Meet collector Nicholas de Piro
Marquis Nicholas de Piro is the founder of the beautiful Casa Rocca Piccola House Museum in Valletta. He has opened his home to the public to share the many decades of shrewd art collecting. He was years ahead in recognising and appreciating...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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1:03:58